Hearth Restaurant Review at Ritz Carlton Perth

Hearth Perth

1 Barrack St,

Perth WA 6000,

Australia

Located at Ritz Carlton, is three Chef Hatted Hearth Restaurant. The chef heading the restaurant, is a young 28 year old Brian Cole. He has such an amazing story of leaving Sierra Leone due to civil war when he was young and arriving in Perth through a refugee program in 2004. He was awarded the WA Good Food Guide's Young Chef of the year in 2024 and had previously been in the kitchen of Narisawa in Tokyo.

The restaurant's focal point is the open hearth from where it takes it name. Every dish is touched by fire, smoke or ash in some way, creating a sensory experience especially if you sit at the kitchen table.

Hearth aims to showcase seasonal menus using produce from around Western Australia. If you visit the Hearth webpage, they actually list down some of the producers that they work with, including Tucker Bush for native plants, The Mushroom Guys for gourmet mushrooms, Raeburn Orchards for stonefruits, Blazing Saddles for chillis as well as Charlotte Creek for edible florals. I love the ethos of this, knowing exactly where your produce is coming from and what is in season.

Taste of Hearth Menu (160 AUD Per Person):

• Triple Barley Sourdough Bread, Burnt Honey and Carrot Butter, Bee Pollen

• Twice Baked Cheese Souffle, Champagne Cream, Leek Ash, Chestnut Mushroom, Red Back Ginger

• Fremantle Octopus, Char Siu Marinade, Burnt Cauliflower, Salt Bush, White Beans, Caviar

• Dry-aged Wagin Duck, Confit Duck Leg, Burnt Pineapple, Endive, Sunrise Lime, Bone Sauce

• Mottainai Lamb, Braise Lamb Shoulder, Zucchini, Bush Tomato, Wild Rosemary, Lamb Fat Jus

• Pardoo Wagyu Oyster Blade, Smoked Beef Tongue, Celeriac, Grilled Brassica, Wattleseed Jus (Supplement of 18 AUD)

• Bahen and Co. Chocolate Mille-Feuille, Bush Basil, Roasted Hazelnut Ice Cream, River Mint

Of the menu, we especially liked the Twice Baked Cheese Souffle as well as the Wagyu Oyster Blade. These 2 dishes stood out for us and were the ones to be reminded. Throughout dinner service, we had great servers, who were so patient to share information about the native bushes as well as some of their favourites from the menu.

Together with the tasting menu, Hearth also offered 2 types of pairing, a standard and a premium one. However, we were still rather tired from our travels and opted for glasses instead. Hearth has an extremely commendable wine list, and several of WA flagship vineyards are by the glass, which is such a nice way to experience WA wines.

For our meal, we chose some classic WA wines :

• Vasse Felix Heytesbury 2022 Chardonnay - Margaret River's flagship white, with complex lemon curd, grapefruit rind and orange blossoms.

• Voyager Estate 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon - Margaret River with juicy dark berry fruits, violets, cocoa and cedar. Nicely aged and just coming into its drinking window.

• Picardy 2022 Pinot Noir - Pemberton's cool climate wine with hibiscus and rose blooms with a beautiful mouthfeel of morello cherries and pomegranate.

All three glasses were of great quality and showcased the different terroirs of WA with its different types of grapes. The reds in particular had potential, but were all slightly too young. We prefer long finishes (which the wines definitely did have) and extreme complexity, which I am sure if we have kept these wines in the cellar for a longer period, would be able to tease out some of these flavours.

Booking

There are tables a week out, and when we were dining, the restaurant was not fully filled. There are options for both tasting menus as well as ala carte. It might be worthwhile booking if you have a preference for the tasting menu so that the restaurant can prepare ahead of time.

Accessibility

Hearth is located at Elizabeth Quay and the train station, bus station as well as the ferry stop is within a 5 minute walk from the restaurant. It is a beautiful walk along the promenade. Extremely convenient. We stayed at the Ritz Carlton so did not have to travel. However, on one of the days, we had a leisurely stroll around the promenade at night. It was a lovely walk and incredibly safe at night.

The Damage

The damage for the night was 160 AUD per pax for dinner and approximately 40 AUD per glass of wine. Total was 440 AUD for 2 pax. We also had 150 AUD credit from our hotel stay which we used for this meal. Our total was 290 AUD, which we thought was fantastic value.

Would We Recommend?

Yes. If you are just in Perth city and looking for a nice venue, Hearth is a great option. At 160 AUD per pax, it is also very good value. Though I would not consider this a 3 Chef Hat or 3 Michelin Star equivalent, it has strong value proposition in terms of price and showcase of local produce.